Ash Hartman

Ash Hartman is an undergraduate in Information Systems. Also a Data Analyst for DePaul's Fundraising Office, he specializes in Oracle programming and Data/Business Analysis. Ash hopes to bring the world views and insights he gained in Ghana back to the workplace. Most inspiring to him, were the Ghanaian's deep motivation to succeed and lead Ghana to becoming a world leader in commerce.
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Akili Lee

Akili Lee is the co-founder of the Digital Youth Network (DYN), a digital literacy program serving hundreds middle and high school aged youth throughout Chicago. In this role, he helped to define DYNís unique hybrid model to support youth in developing and applying digital skills in the classroom, out-of-school programming and in the home. Akili leads DYNís work in innovating new digital learning tools and supporting youth focused organizations develop models for successfully integrating digital media as a way to increase engagement and effectiveness. Akili is the creator of the iRemix Platform, which allows educators to introduce social networking in learning contexts. Akili received a B.A. in Computing and Information Systems from Northwestern University and is currently completing a MS in Business Information Technology at Depaul University. - See more at: http://remixlearning.com/about/#sthash.Wtfam3PO.dpuf
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Chanita Wade

Chanita Wade is currently a sophomore at The School of New Learning at DePaul University pursuing a Bachelor degree in Community Health Education. Chanita is an active member of Chicago Cares where she volunteers throughout the city of Chicago. Her focus is to help bring awareness to communities about healthier eating and healthier cooking to promote a healthier lifestyle. Traveling study abroad to Ghana gave Chanita a better understanding of culture and the important of sustainable infrastructure for healthy eating alternatives.
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Christina Faris

Christina is an undergraduate student who is completing a Bachelorís degree in Accounting. Upon graduation, she will be joining Crowe Horwath in New York as an internal audit risk consultant. Her main focus in Ghana was to study the way businesses interact with one another and their customers through an IT lens. By visiting local businesses as well as international companies, she was able to gain an understanding of IT usage in emerging cultures. Networking and meeting business professionals was an opportunity for her to learn about the key issues Ghana faces moving forward as a model of African growth.
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Emeka Anyadiegwu

My name is Emeka Anyadiegwu and I am graduating on June 2013 with a major in Economics and a minor in Management. I am in the College of Commerce. I went to Ghana because I plan to do business or work in Africa in the future. i want to reduce poverty and create jobs. So I went to see the problems and how to fix things. I have been studying Africa on my spare time for years but I want to go hands-on in Ghana. I need to understand the average mindset and how people are living.I also wanted to compare and contrast Nigeria and Ghana. There are many Nigerians in Ghana as well. They are both in West Africa and I wanted to see how their cultures clashed. I also wanted to see how they saw each other. I wanted to understand the economy of Ghana as well. I wanted to see what are the good sectors that are creating many jobs. I also wanted to see which sectors need investment in. I plan to get a Master's in International and/or Developmental Economics after I graduate. I would like to work in a company or an organization like ECOWAS or the African Union.
I also wanted to look for companies to promote for my website African Economic Development plan (africanedp.com) The site promotes fashion, art, goods, tourism and investing in Africa. We are trying to give people things people can do to stimulate African economies. People think about aid when they think of Africa, they should think of trade instead. That is the way to develop Africa. Also, we want to connect African countries with each other. We want to promote intra-African trade by telling other countries of products to buy.
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Jennifer Wright

Jennifer Wright is in the Master's of Information Services program with an expected graduation date of Spring 2014. Jennifer was born and raised in Chicago, IL. In addition to spending time with family and friends, she enjoys reading literature, writing, designing and dancing. Going to Ghana on this study Abroad trip has given Jennifer an invaluable first hand look at how technology and ICTs are used in a different part of the world. She says that she is grateful for being able to attend her first conference while in Ghana and for the many friendships she made while abroad.
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Lisa Bufka

Lisa is currently finishing her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education at DePaul University and will be student teaching then graduating in June of 2013. She has also been working with children in after school programs, child care and tutoring positions. Technology in the classroom is a special interest to Lisa, and she also works to include information technology as well as media in her lesson plans. While in Ghana she has been researching the level of technology access and education of IT skill sets at the elementary and university levels.
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Tanicha Hart

Tanicha is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Information Technology - Project Management degree in DePaul University's College of Computing and Digital Media. With a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and over ten years of experience in higher education, the December 2012 Ghana Study Abroad provided Tanicha with a better understanding of how technology is incorporated in Ghana’s emerging economic, political and educational systems.
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Valerie Hall

Valerie Hall is currently a junior at DePaul Universityís College of Digital Media (School of Computing) pursuing a Bachelors of Science degree in Computer Science. She is also doing research on the best practices for captive offshore IT work. Her interest in global technology drove her to explore the depths of Ghana to investigate IT work around the world.
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Yele Adelakun, Ph.D.

Olayele Adelakun is an Assistant Professor of MIS at DePaul University's School of Computing and Digital Media. His research focuses on IT Outsourcing, ERP systems implementation, and Information systems quality and Evaluation. He has conducted case studies in both medium size companies and multinational companies in Finland and the United States. He was the chairman of the 2001 and 2002 IT outsourcing conference and the moderator of the 2003 offshore outsourcing panel discussion at DePaul University. He started the study abroad program at CDM in 1993. He has been published in over thirty articles, books and journals. He holds an M.S. in Information Processing Science from University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland and Ph.D. in Information Systems from the Turku School of Economics and Business Administration, Turku, Finland.
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